Member Spotlight Stephan Davis, FACHE MHA Director and Assistant Professor University of North Texas Health Science Center What are you doing now? I serve as director of the Master of Health Administration program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center (HSC), School of Public Health. In this role, I have the pleasure of teaching and advising students, working with healthcare executives who serve as preceptors for student internships, and collaborating with faculty and staff to ensure our program meets the needs of our various stakeholders. As the only master’s program exclusively based in North Texas that is accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME), the gold standard for graduate training in healthcare leadership, much of my work also focuses on ensuring that our program continues to exceed the rigorous standards associated with CAHME. I am a national faculty member and the 2020-2021 Chair of the ACHE LGBTQ Forum. In these roles, I have had the pleasure to teach sessions at Congress and at ACHE executive seminars and collaborate with healthcare leaders across the nation on ACHE’s diversity initiatives. I am also very active with the Yale University community. I serve as the alumni co-chair of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Action Solutions (IDEAS) Council for the Yale School of Nursing, and in July I began a three-year term as delegate to the Yale Alumni Association.
In your opinion, what is the most important issue facing Healthcare today? The current crisis has illuminated numerous challenges for our healthcare system. While there are clearly structural, technological, and process-related issues that need improvement, I believe our greatest strengths and opportunities for growth are in our workforce. Leaders must ask whether their workforce is prepared to meet our present challenges and the needs of the future. In addition to our ongoing focus on preventing burnout and building resilience among members of the clinical workforce, ensuring that our teams are adaptable and possess the agility necessary to navigate uncharted waters is critical. As someone who entered healthcare leadership by way of nursing, I am very mission-focused. I believe that our collective work in healthcare is truly a calling to advance health and alleviate suffering. I believe that the only way our organizations will succeed now and in the future is by ensuring that each member of the workforce fully understands the tremendous responsibility we hold.
How long have you been a member of ACHE? I first became a student associate with ACHE in 2007 when I began my master’s program in health systems administration at Georgetown. I became a Fellow of ACHE in 2014. As a new Dallas-Fort Worth resident, I became a member of the North Texas Chapter this spring.
